Developing A Fully Soft Robotic Snake For Search And Rescue

Authors

  • Randall Theo Samm , Vickneswari Durairajah , Suresh Gobee

Abstract

In a disastrous environment, the normal way for a victim to be rescued is by first responders or
search and rescue operators to look for victims, by placing themselves in dangerous situations and risking
their lives to search for trapped victims. There have been times where having a robot would be more
beneficial to the search and rescue operators as they are replaceable but more importantly because rescuers
would not need to go into dangerous situations and risk their lives saving other people. Hard robots have
been used in certain scenarios and have proved their usefulness in these situations. But they come with a
downside which is they tend to damage easily and cannot fit into tight or small spaces unless specifically
designed to. Soft robots tend to solve this problem since by being made from soft materials they tend to
absorb impacts better than hard bodied robots. Therefore, a soft robotic snake design was proposed to be
made to be used in scenarios such as search and rescue operations. The proposed system can be remotely
accessed and has video feedback capabilities. The main body of the robot was fabricated out of silicone and
shows an accuracy of 70 percent in repeating its motion on a controlled surface after moving across different
terrains and has a top speed of 6cm/min through inching motion.

Published

2020-01-30

Issue

Section

Articles